A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, University of the Witwatersrand. Johannesburg, 22 August 2017. / Attainment in problem solving in mathematics is one of the cognitive levels that is used to guide the assessments in South Africa. Unfortunately, it is one of the levels in which most students do not perform well. This research investigates whether the approach taken in an intervention focused on discussing problem solving shows potential for improving individual learning outcomes? A pre-test and post-test on problem solving questions was administered to two Grade 8 classes from a private school in a Northern suburb of Johannesburg. The intervention 1 class wrote a pre-test and thereafter the class was taught how to deal with mathematical problems and later the class wrote a post-test. The intervention 2 class only wrote the pre-test and the post-test, with the usual kind of teaching. Not only did the intervention 1 class average improve by 10% from 38% on the pre-test to 48% on the post-test but also the class improved in terms of using models to solve problems. On the other hand, the intervention 2 class improved by 14% from 24% to 38%. However, while the intervention 2 class had an improvement in terms of using models to solve problems, the improvement was not substantial. The results also show that mathematical problem solving involving ratios remain a challenge for the grade 8 students in my school and that more work needs to be done to ensure success in mathematical problems involving ratios. Keywords: Problem-solving; intervention 2 class; intervention 1 class, cognitive levels / LG2018

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of (the qualification as per the PG2 form), Human Resource Management, Durban, University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017. / This study evaluated the effect of government expenditure on education attainment in South Africa by assessing the effect of the amount spent by government on education from 1980 to 2014 on human capital development. The study is centred around two objectives: (1) to analyse the effect of government expenditure on education attainment; and (2) to investigate the effect of education attainment on human development. Human capital development was measured using Gross Enrolment Ratio for secondary school, supplied by the South African Reserve Bank. Data on government expenditure on human capital was acquired from the Treasury database. The study draws from the human capital theoretical framework in explaining the effect of education expenditure on human capital development. The findings of the study showed that there is a positive relationship between human capital development and government expenditure. These findings showed a strong relationship between government expenditure and gross enrolment ratio at 99 % confidence interval (p< 0,0001). The theory of human capital is thus confirmed with these findings. / M